Apparently, this story is breaking nationally as you read this....from Reuters a few minutes ago...
Psychiatrist Warned University About Accused Colorado Gunman: Report
Dan Whitcomb
REUTERS
August 1, 2012 at 11:55 PM ET
DENVER (Reuters) - A psychiatrist who treated the former graduate student accused of killing 12 people in a shooting rampage at a movie theater in Colorado warned her university about him more than a month before the massacre, a published report said on Wednesday.
Dr Lynne Fenton notified a so-called threat-assessment team at the University of Colorado, Denver, in early June that she was alarmed by the behavior of James Holmes, but no further action was taken, the Denver Post reported, citing an anonymous source. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
Holmes, 24, was charged on Monday with 24 counts of first-degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder in the shooting at a midnight screening of the latest "Batman" movie in suburban Denver, one of the worst outbursts of U.S. gun violence in recent years.
…
The Denver Post reported that Fenton raised her concerns about Holmes with the university's Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment team in early June. Denver's KMGH-TV, also citing unnamed sources, said school officials did not contact Aurora police before the shooting and that no action was taken because Holmes was in the process of dropping out of school.
The Reuters story continues on to tell us that Jacque Montgomery, a university spokeswoman, declined to comment, maintaining that “she was bound by a protective or ‘gag’ order issued by the judge in the case and by student confidentiality laws.”
I have a bit more that I want to add to this post; but, due to it being breaking news, I’ll update it in a few minutes.
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UPDATED, as promised...
Kossack and Daily Kos Senior Policy Editor Joan McCarter posted a very timely piece here a few hours ago, “Republicans force cybersecurity cloture vote.” The piece was about S.3414, a/k/a the Senate Cybersecurity Act (and how it's being gamed by obstructionist GOPers on the hill).
As I noted earlier in a comment in her post — and, in a multitude of my own posts over the past few months -- the sorry reality about our society and our citizens' obliterated rights to privacy is that it's a horse that left the barn a long time ago.
We already live in a surveillance state. Orwell and “1984” have nothing on Washington, D.C., circa 2012. (And, the buildup of our surveillance state’s infrastructure is most certainly endorsed by the status quo and many in both parties, notwithstanding occasional kabuki to the contrary.)
Less than 48 hours ago, in another post, I provided a series of links (over a dozen of them, in fact—see blockquote, immediately below) to a variety of news stories and blog posts which provide more than ample support for the inconvenient truth of the previous sentence, too. (I strongly urge you to click on the links, immediately below, to understand the brutal—and grossly misdirected--realities that now exist within our surveillance state. A click on the last link, in the blockquote, immediately below, will provide you with basic, first-person facts which tell us that our government already maintains files on virtually every U.S. citizen, as you read this.)
…if you have any doubts that we’re not already miles beyond any semblance of “democracy,” and light years past “clichés” about 1984, I’d suggest you read THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, and especially THIS.
So, here we are in 2012, with scores of billions of dollars being spent each year on supposed homeland security and comprehensive surveillance of our population—all in the name of stopping
“terrorism.”
In other words, we live in a country where, nowadays, peaceful protest against the status quo elicits both massive, institutionalized brutality and state-sponsored surveillance (see my links, above) at levels that would make even Orwell blush.
Meanwhile, a 24-year-old neuroscience graduate student may buy enough ammo online to arm virtually everyone in Seal Team Six; not to mention purchase hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of Kevlar, all online in a period of roughly 100 days, as well, without even appearing on law enforcement's radar.
Now we learn that his psychiatrist warned his University that she was concerned her patient might be a threat to himself and/or those around him.
$50 billion-plus dollars in state surveillance and terrorism “prevention” annual budgets later--not to mention 12 dead and 59 wounded--local law enforcement didn’t have a clue about James Holmes.
Like many throughout the blogosphere and the media over the past couple of weeks, I have fewer answers than questions, starting with: What’s wrong with this picture?
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No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.
― Edward R. Murrow
The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?
― George Orwell